Fully Charged: HTC One touched by Midas, Leica M touched by Jony Ive, and the best prank video of the year

HTC One released in pure 18ct gold

Gold iPhone 5S who? HTC has trumped the champagne-tinged Apple smartphone by creating an actual 18ct gold edition of its One flagship phone – although there are just five of them in existence. The unibody isn’t made of solid gold (it’s a little soft, you see), but both the front and back of the phone have been plated in the precious metal.

The handset, valued at £2,750, has been produced specially for this year’s MOBO Awards, where it will be given to the winner of the Best Newcomer category. The ceremony takes place in Glasgow on 19th October.

Jony Ive-designed Leica M being auctioned off for (RED)

Jony Ive-designed Leica M being auctioned off for (RED)

Jony Ive-designed Leica M being auctioned off for (RED)

Jony Ive-designed Leica M being auctioned off for (RED)

Just when you thought the Leica M couldn’t get any more desirable, Apple’s VP of Industrial Design comes along and designs a special limited edition model.

Ive and fellow designer Marc Newson spent 85 days working on the camera, which will be auctioned off at Sotheby’s in November for the (RED) charity. It features a machine aluminium body, anodised aluminium shell, full-format CMOS sensor and an all-new 50mm F2 lens. The design may not be classic Leica, but it reeks of Ive and his love of sleek lines and premium materials. [Source: Google+]

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Watch “Carrie” scare the bejeezus out of unsuspecting New Yorkers

You may well argue that there was no need to remake the perfectly decent Carrie, but the promotional run-up to the movie has spawned one of the finest and most lavish prank videos we’ve seen all year.

New York viral video creator Thinkmodo took over a West Village coffee shop and, thanks to a dazzling array of special effects, managed to convince a slew of poor caffeine-seekers that an angry girl was discovering she wielded telekinetic powers. Watch, laugh, and wonder how you’d react if you saw all this going down.

Amazon now shipping Google Chromecast to UK

Google Chromecast

Want a Google Chromecast but live in the UK? Well, thanks to Amazon you no longer have to buy the video-streaming dongle on eBay at a hugely inflated price. While Google has yet to release the device outside of the US, Amazon.com is now able to ship it to foreign lands – and for a fee of just £5.79. The dongle costs US$35, which Amazon converts to £22.59, so that means you can have your very own Chromecast for a mere £28.38, plus a customs fee that’ll add another £5 or so. That’s probably about what Google will end up charging for the Chromecast should the company ever launch it in Blighty. [Source: Android Central]